Immigrant parents of children born in Ireland are no longer entitled to seek residency in the State due to their parental status under new rules that take effect from today.
The move follows a Supreme Court ruling last month that non-EU immigrant parents of Irish-born children, who would otherwise face deportation, were not automatically entitled to residency here.
A leaflet on the issue and an application form will from today be withdrawn from the Department of Justice's website, www.justice.ie, and a new explanatory notice posted.
The move puts an end to the practice in recent years whereby thousands of immigrants entered Ireland as asylum-seekers but subsequently dropped their claims for recognition as refugees to instead seek residency once they became parents of children born here.
It had been the practice for the authorities to grant residency to non-EU immigrant parents of Irish-born children, who automatically become citizens, regardless of whether the parents would otherwise face deportation if their asylum applications were rejected.
Today's move effectively blocks off what Department of Justice officials said had become a "third way" for immigrants to gain rights to remain in Ireland, outside the existing asylum and labour/ study immigration channels.
In 2001, 3,153 people were granted residency on the basis of parenting Irish-born children. This rose to 4,027 last year, of which 3,077 successful applicants were people who had been or were in the asylum process, while 950 had entered the State as non-EU immigrant workers or students.
A Department spokesman said from today it would "not be an option" for people to enter the State as asylum-seekers and then claim residency once they become parents of children born in Ireland.
However, unsuccessful asylum applicants would be entitled to appeal for leave to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds, which could include their parentage of Irish-born children, he added. Such cases would be decided on an individual basis.
The rules will also apply to people who enter the country illegally and immigrant workers who enter legally but extend their stay beyond the legitimate period. In such cases, the authorities will only consider applications for leave to remain made after the initiation of any deportation process.
The spokesman said the move to cease future residency applications on the basis of parentage of an Irish-born child does not affect the 1,100 outstanding applications from parents of children born as far back as September 2001.
Almost 90 per cent of these applications have been made by people who had been or still are asylum applicants.
Last month's court ruling caused anxiety among immigrants in similar situations to those at the centre of the case, a Czech family and a Nigerian father.
However, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has ruled out mass deportations of people whose applications are being pro-cessed, and said they would be handled on an individual basis.
He has also indicated that the length of time the parents of Irish citizen children have resided in the State would be a key factor in considering these applications.